Thread: Does anyone here use ultrasonic cleaners?

Thanks BobL,
I have used carby cleaner(spray can) and with good results. I just want to see if I can take it to the next level as sometimes after my track bike carby has been sitting around for a while the accelerator pump outlets can block up. At the risk of carby cleaner corroding parts(doing to good a job) can I use something else I bit more mild and rely on the process of what I have read in the last few post about how the US cleaner actually works regarding the micro explosions. Or am I assuming incorrectly?

Originally Posted by Maxi77

Thanks BobL,
I have used carby cleaner(spray can) and with good results. I just want to see if I can take it to the next level as sometimes after my track bike carby has been sitting around for a while the accelerator pump outlets can block up. At the risk of carby cleaner corroding parts(doing to good a job) can I use something else I bit more mild and rely on the process of what I have read in the last few post about how the US cleaner actually works regarding the micro explosions. Or am I assuming incorrectly?

If you want something mild I would use water and a dash of gentle to the hands dishwashing liquid.
Then rinse the soap off and use plain water.

I thought US cleaners use water in the tank and you place your items in the water sitting on a grill. If you have the items in a container inside the water, isn't that defeating the purpose of transmitting the us waves via the water and release the gunk?
Water temperature, time, amount of detergent or soda or similar should be the variables as far as I know (that is not much)

Originally Posted by Marc

I thought US cleaners use water in the tank and you place your items in the water sitting on a grill. If you have the items in a container inside the water, isn't that defeating the purpose of transmitting the us waves via the water and release the gunk?
Water temperature, time, amount of detergent or soda or similar should be the variables as far as I know (that is not much)

Not at all Mark. I regularly use commercial US cleaners in my customer's labs. I never use the water in the tank directly for cleaning. I always put the object(s) to be cleaned into a glass beaker, filled with a suitable solvent such as Isopropanol or Acetone or in ceratin cases even Cloroform. The glass beaker then rests on the grill of the US cleaner, submerged in the water which is usually kept at room temperature. I almost invariably see these US cleaners installed inside a fume hood, this is a precaution because they are very often used with solvents. When used with water, it is also common to put the object to be cleaned in a beaker with demineralized water, such as not to contaminate the water in the US cleaner. There is no noticeable attenuation of the US waves by using a submerged beaker, because the water in the US cleaner is in direct contact with the glass beaker, and the beaker again is in direct contact with the cleaning solvent.

As an analogy, think of a medical imaging US scanner. You put a gel on the transducer head to conduct the US waves to the shin, such as to exclude any air bubbles in between that would block the US waves and cause image artefacts.

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

Cloroform.

So it has other uses other the first that comes to mind...

Reminds me of the pick up line... "Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?"

Chloroform is a terrific solvent. We used to use a lot of chloroform for cleaning and also for sample purification by solvent extraction. It was the standard way we would would extract lead out of leaded petrol. Add petrol to a mix of nitric acid and chloroform and shake - the methyl lead would preferentially dissolve into the nitric and the rest into the chloroform. We even used to distill the chloroform ourselves to get it extra pure because even the analytic grade reagent chloroform had some lead in it. Everything was done in a fume hood and the students would get a right royal roasting if they left the even closed container in the open lab. I remember ordering 10, 2.5L bottles of the stuff when we hear that new OHS regs was coming in to limit the amount we could use. When it finally came in in the 1990's we were asked to use other solvents. It is still used in small the lab in small amounts for extracting trace amounts of platinoid metals out of crude oil.

OK. Look like I know what to ask for when Christmas comes around. A 3L US cleaner with the rotary dials. I can imagine mainly using it to clean nuts and bolts. It drives me mental cleaning the gunk out of cap head bolts etc. and the thought of putting a machine back together with dirty nuts and bolts is even worse!

Cheers,

Simon

Mm ... interesting ... now I have to figure out why I would NEED an ultrasonic cleaner for ... I wonder if it will clean the rust off steel?

Originally Posted by Marc

Mm ... interesting ... now I have to figure out why I would NEED an ultrasonic cleaner for ... I wonder if it will clean the rust off steel?

In word? No. It may break a loose bond of rust to the base metal. Alternatively the liquid used may have some de rusting properties. But the US cleaner itself won't clean or remove rust from metals

Originally Posted by Pete F

I'm considering buying a new ultrasonic cleaner and wondered if others had one they would recommend? I have a small one that I bought from Harbor Freight and it's completely useless, it put me off them, but I've recently seen some evidence that (unremarkably) it was the crap product rather than the process itself that was to blame.

I had one to clean up the CVA (solvent in the jar trick mainly) but when that was done sold it to Stuart. Standard Ebay 2l model but worked. I've also used them for cleaning out ink drawing pens (using water in a jar) and managed to get one or two oil metering valves working again (out of 6 - not a roaring success). Very good for loosening up dirt in nooks and crannies, not so good for large amounts of muck - pre-clean when ever possible. Unless the rust is very flaky I would not have thought it would do much worth knowing about.

Once upon a time an Australian company called Soni-clean (?) made models with swept frequencies to avoid having nodes form. Apart from electronics melt downs, the biggest problem with non-industrial units was that the transducers are normally only attached to the tank with adhesive, so without fluid in them the energy has to go somewhere and normally does by shaking the transducer off. If you find an old secondhand unit that is sold as "not working" it may be as simple as opening it up and re attaching (silicone sealant etc) the transducer(s)

Michael

Originally Posted by .RC.

So it has other uses other the first that comes to mind...

Reminds me of the pick up line... "Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?"

It has many uses in the chemistry lab. As Bob says, Cloroform is a terrific solvent.

About the only use I can think of in a home shop is to glue PMMA (PoyMethylMethAcrylate, better known as Perspex, Plexiglass, Acrylite, Lucite etcetcetc). That is the clear plastic sheets that can be bent with a heat gun, drilled, tapped etc etc. Often used to make up shield for lathes, mills, grinders.... As far as I know, nothing else can be used to glue this stuff, only Chloroform will create a clear and solid bond. The main difficulty in keeping Chloroform in a workshop is its volatility. It is stored in glass bottles with a Teflon seal in the screw cap. Even then, the level in the bottle will slowly drop over time. I could however imagine, that in Australia it is hard to get Chloroform outside of a lab environment (nowdays they even legislate for special petrol mixes that do not lend themselves too well for kids petrol sniffing.)

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

It has many uses in the chemistry lab. As Bob says, Cloroform is a terrific solvent.

About the only use I can think of in a home shop is to glue PMMA (PoyMethylMethAcrylate, better known as Perspex, Plexiglass, Acrylite, Lucite etcetcetc). That is the clear plastic sheets that can be bent with a heat gun, drilled, tapped etc etc. Often used to make up shield for lathes, mills, grinders.... As far as I know, nothing else can be used to glue this stuff, only Chloroform will create a clear and solid bond. The main difficulty in keeping Chloroform in a workshop is its volatility. It is stored in glass bottles with a Teflon seal in the screw cap. Even then, the level in the bottle will slowly drop over time. I could however imagine, that in Australia it is hard to get Chloroform outside of a lab environment (nowdays they even legislate for special petrol mixes that do not lend themselves too well for kids petrol sniffing.)

Hi Chris,

I have assumed for quite a while now that Chloroform (and other items) are a controlled substance and not able to be accessed by people like me! Same same with substances like Ether, ethanol (although I guess I can distill that myself)

Simon

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

About the only use I can think of in a home shop is to glue PMMA (PoyMethylMethAcrylate, better known as Perspex, Plexiglass, Acrylite, Lucite etcetcetc). That is the clear plastic sheets that can be bent with a heat gun, drilled, tapped etc etc. Often used to make up shield for lathes, mills, grinders.... As far as I know, nothing else can be used to glue this stuff, only Chloroform will create a clear and solid bond.

I tried it and kept passing out... I didn't see RC anywhere close by either...

Ray

PS... Just to try and stay vaguely on topic, I have a tiny ultrasonic cleaner, we used to use it to clean plotting pens, back in the days when we used to plot PCB layouts..

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

It has many uses in the chemistry lab. As Bob says, Cloroform is a terrific solvent.

About the only use I can think of in a home shop is to glue PMMA (PoyMethylMethAcrylate, better known as Perspex, Plexiglass, Acrylite, Lucite etcetcetc). That is the clear plastic sheets that can be bent with a heat gun, drilled, tapped etc etc. Often used to make up shield for lathes, mills, grinders.... As far as I know, nothing else can be used to glue this stuff, only Chloroform will create a clear and solid bond. The main difficulty in keeping Chloroform in a workshop is its volatility. It is stored in glass bottles with a Teflon seal in the screw cap. Even then, the level in the bottle will slowly drop over time. I could however imagine, that in Australia it is hard to get Chloroform outside of a lab environment (nowdays they even legislate for special petrol mixes that do not lend themselves too well for kids petrol sniffing.)

Acetone.

Cheers Dean